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SARS-like coronavirus possibly found in New York

Nurses at St. Luke's hospital in New York claimed on Saturday that there are several cases of a new SARS-like virus in the hospital's ICU.

This is one of many new reports of the coronavirus. Most notably, there has been a recent outburst of the novel coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, which is believed to be a close relative to the cases in New York.

Novel coronavirus, also known as nCoV and Saudi SARS, is a new type of coronavirus that was discovered in 2012. Saudi SARS is closely related to the more famous SARS, which has been labeled Hong Kong SARS to avoid confusion, and is believed to have originated with an unknown animal species.

SARS works by evading the innate immune responses and disrupting interferon production in the cells. The result is a severe acute pneumonia, which can eventually lead to renal failure and death.

The nurses at St. Luke's believe the cases are misdiagnosed and that these patients in the ICU are, in fact, infected with this new, deadly virus. One of the nurses who spoke out about this potential outbreak is now hospitalized with flu-like symptoms.

Though the hospital has not confirmed or denied any of the rumors, an online message board believes it is merely a case of influenza B. The nurses continue to dispute this.